The companies plan to extract clean-motor fuels from natural gas reserves in Uzbekistan using Sasol’ s technology.
Petronas, Sasol and Uzbekneftegaz signed a heads of agreement in the Uzbek capital Tashkent yesterday and are currently holding talks with the government of the Central Asian nation on plans to proceed with implementing the project.
The Uzbekistan plant could produce as much as 40,000 barrels a day of transport fuels and would need about 3 trillion cubic feet of gas, he said. The Qatari plant, in which Sasol has a 49 percent stake, has the capacity to produce 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
But the project faces competitive disadvantages.
First of all, GTL depends on a very cheap supply of gas, and Uzbekistan doesn’ t look like providing cheap feedstock.
Still, Petronas plans to invest more than $750 million in oil and gas projects in Uzbekistan, Interfax reported in November, citing Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Malaysia’ s state oil and gas producer is involved in the production and development of Urga, Kuanish and Ackhalak areas, and is exploring in the Surkhansi and the Baisun areas, the statement said.
Author: Ksenia Kochneva
